Reports

The Human Development Strategy, while providing people with opportunities to develop their capacities, must place people at its center and, as such, give high priority to gender equality since gender equality really represents a keystone of human development that stresses sustainable productivity, equality and empowerment of all people.

The Kosovo HDR 2012 focuses on the linkages between human development and private sector expansion showing that private sector growth is intricately connected with Kosovo's social context and that it needs to be built from a much wider and fairer base than currently to unleash the real potential of Kosovo's market place. A new survey on Enterprise Barriers was prepared and conducted by Riinvest with a representative sample of 600 business owners across the reach of Kosovo, and results tested through focus groups with wider audiences.

The Report examines traditional socio-economic indicators, from poverty and unemployment to health and education, from the perspective of social inclusion. It explores how discrimination – deliberate or otherwise – affects Kosovo’s socio-economic balance, its political process and its EU-orientated policy goals. It also identifies social groups feeling the bite of exclusion more deeply than others. These groups risk becoming Kosovo’s invisible population unless they are moved quickly up the policy prioritization ladder and made the primary focus of Kosovo’s development agenda: the long-term unemployed, disadvantaged children and youth, rural women, Kosovo-Roma, Askhali and Egyptian (RAE) communities, people with special needs. Finally, it offers some recommendations on how the move towards a more inclusive society might be managed, as a fundamental precursor to other economic and political progress.

After a close look at what we mean when we say “civil society” and what we mean when we say “development,” the report goes on to explore the history of civil society in Kosovo, its legal context, and ways it can influence public policy. Next, it looks at civil society through the eyes of the government and the general public, before discussing ways that CSOs can effectively work together with the government, with each other, and with the media, and ways they can influence and benefit from the European integration process. The final two chapters suggest improvements that CSOs should strive for and explore the potential of Community Driven Human Development in Kosovo.